"I don't know." Kagura admitted. "We're dedicated and we've worked hard… and we have a very good coach… but we have a pretty small team, especially for entering competitions on a regional level."

"I see." Yomi nodded.

"I wish Sakaki would join, though." Kagura sighed. "She's so fast, so powerful… and she's incredibly lucky to be so effortlessly talented…"

"And you clearly want to get to see her get changed afterwards." Tomo added, not bothering to lower her voice.

"What?" the two other girls asked, Yomi in disbelief, Kagura in abject horror.

"Did I say something?" Tomo asked, a wide grin across her face, not abashed in the slightest, and clearly not going to take back her comment.

"Besides," Kagura continued, pretending Tomo's accusation hadn't happened, "I want her to join for Coach's sake. She's been working so hard, been with us every step of the way and somehow manages to stay confident enough for all of us… so we keep on going for her, if nothing else."

"That's… pretty impressive." Yomi admitted, a little taken aback by the passion in Kagura's words.

"She's so great," Kagura continued, not realizing that her ardent speech about Miss Kurosawa was doing little but confirm any suspicions the two girls may have had about their friend's sexuality. "She puts in so much effort all the time; it's no wonder we do so well with a role model like her to look up to."

"That's great." Yomi managed, struggling to come up with decent responses – Tomo wasn't even bothering and was openly staring at her friend – but she didn't really need to because Kagura was so carried away with her enthusiastic speech that Yomi was sure she would have continued ranting on without an audience at all.

"And Sakaki shows such natural talent; I mean, if she's that good with no training, just imagine how incredible she could be if she trained under Coach! It makes me feel so bad when such ability gets… wasted, y'know? I've tried persuading her hundreds of times, but she doesn't seem to pay me that much attention… you know what I mean?"

It was perhaps fortunate that she didn't look up for confirmation because Tomo was no longer even pretending to listen to the girl's heartfelt speech and Yomi just looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I guess I should try and get Coach to persuade her; I mean, she's the reason I joined the swim team in the first place."

"So you could get to watch Nyamo change, too?" said a new voice from behind them.

The three girls jumped in their seats and turned to face their loud, brash, larger-than-life homeroom teacher, who seemed to have been listening in on the majority of the one-sided conversation with a great interest.

Kagura immediately turned beet-red in embarrassment and stared intently at her tray. Yukari ignored her obvious discomfort and announced "If you ask me, the only person Sakaki might be interested in is Chiyosuke, and she'd never admit that to anyone. Sorry kid, but she couldn't be more oblivious to you."

Kagura looked up, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Though," Yukari added thoughtfully, "if you let her grow up a little, you and Kaorin'd make a good couple. But you both really need to get over Sakaki. Her especially. It's just not healthy."

"What? Kaorin?" Tomo asked with more than a hint of scepticism.

"Well, she'd work better than Osaka at least. Wouldn't you think?"

"Yukari-Sensei, what are you-"

"And you really need to give up on Nyamo." Yukari interrupted without missing a beat, a confident smirk across her face. "Because she's most definitely taken."

With that, Yukari turned and walked away from the table, perhaps with a little more sway to her hips than usual, leaving three very bewildered students in her wake.

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